(ANSA) - TOKYO, DECEMBER 24 - Japan will not send ministerial officials to the Beijing Winter Olympics in February, the spokesman for the Japanese government announced on Friday after the diplomatic boycott decided by several countries, including the United States.
Tokyo 2020 Olympic Organizing Committee President Seiko Hashimoto will visit the site, as will Japan Olympic Committee President Yasuhiro Yamashita, official spokesperson Hirokazu Matsuno added. Hashimoto will go to Beijing "to express gratitude and respect to the athletes and other people who supported the Tokyo Games" held last summer, he added. By contrast, Japan "does not plan to send government officials" to the Winter Olympics in China, the spokesman said.
Tokyo's stance came after the US, UK, Australia and Canada announced a diplomatic boycott of the Beijing Games on February 4-202022 this month to denounce human rights abuses in China.
Beijing has warned the four Western countries that they will send athletes to the Games but not officials that they will pay "the price" for their decision. Japan, host of the Tokyo 2020 Games postponed for a year due to the coronavirus, is in a delicate diplomatic position between the United States and China, two important trading partners, and has so far failed to make its position known. South Korea, another US ally, for its part announced earlier last week that it would not diplomatically boycott the Games, citing the need to continue cooperating with China. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has meanwhile invoked its "neutrality" on the question, refusing to comment on "purely political decisions" and above all welcoming theabsence of a sports boycott. According to human rights organizations, at least one million Uyghurs and other Turkish-speaking minorities, mostly Muslims, are detained in Xinjiang camps. China is accused of forcibly disterilizing women and imposing forced labor. (HANDLE).